out of the herd a quite unpardonable offence ; how 

 he stuck in the drifts and had to be ' double-spanned ' 

 and pulled out by Jim ; how he once lost his way in 

 the bush ; and how he upset the waggon coming down 

 the Devil's Shoot. 



Jim had once brought down the Berg from Spitzkop | 

 a loaded waggon on which there was a cottage piano 

 packed standing upright. The road was an awful 

 one, it is true, and few drivers could have handled so 

 top-heavy a load without capsizing he had received a 

 bansela for his skill but to him the feat was one without 

 parallel in the history of waggon driving ; and when 

 drunk he usually coupled it with his other great achieve- 

 ment of catching a lion alive. His contempt for 

 Sam's misadventure on the Devil's Shoot was therefore 

 great, and to it was added resentment against Sam's 

 respectability and superior education, which the latter 

 was able to rub in in safety by ostentatiously reading 

 his Bible aloud at nights as they sat round the fire. 

 Jim was a heathen, and openly affirmed his conviction 

 that a Christian kaffir was an impostor, a bastard, 

 and a hypocrite a thing not to be trusted under any 

 circumstances whatever. The end of his morose 

 outburst was always the same. When his detailed 

 indictment of Sam was completed he would wind up 

 with, " My catchum lion 'live. My bling panyanna 

 fon Diskop (I bring piano from Spitzkop). My 

 naam Makokela : Jim Makokel'. Sam no good ; 

 Sam leada Bible (Sam reads the Bible). Sam no 

 good ! " The intensity of conviction and the gloomy 

 disgust put into the last reference to Sam are not to 

 be expressed in words. 

 207 



